Deepcut instructor in sex attacks on recruits

... and he had already been court martialled for indecency by SUZY SHANLEY THE parents of Army recruits who died in mysterious circumstances have expressed their shock that an officer who was stripped of his rank for a sexual offence was sent to Deepcut as a training instructor to young recruits.

They spoke out after Leslie Skinner, 46, changed his plea at Kingston Crown Court on Tuesday and admitted five sex attacks on young male soldiers.

Among other things, Skinner, who is married with children, forced soldiers to strip before horsewhipping them and photographing the humiliating acts.

Skinner was serving with an Aldershot regiment in Northern Ireland in August 1996 when he lost his warrant officer rank at a court martial for indecently exposing himself in a car park.

However, he was sent to Deepcut three months later in a posting which gave him responsibility over young soldiers.

He had been due to stand trial this week after originally denying the allegations made by three soldiers at the Deepcut camp and a fourth at the Arnhem barracks in Aldershot.

But he changed his plea at the last minute, admitting five charges of indecent assault on the men between 1992 and 1997.

A rape charge and four further charges of indecent assault were ordered to lie on file after Sally Howes, prosecuting, said the crown was prepared to accept his plea.

Diane Gray, mother of Pte Geoff Gray who was one of the four soldiers who died at Deepcut, left the court in tears.

She said: “It just shows what really happened down there. It beggars belief that he was sent to Deepcut, where all these young soldiers are based, after being court martialled for the first time.

“Some of the information about what happened to those boys was incredible for me to hear. It made me think that the same could have been happening to my son and that he may have been too afraid to say anything. You just never know.”

Skinner’s admission also shocked Des James, father of Pte Cheryl James who was found shot dead at the barracks in 1995.

Mr James said afterwards: “We are appalled that a non-commissioned officer at the Deepcut barracks has finally admitted to such serious offences against recruits between 1992 and 1997.

“It is without question a major embarrassment for those who would have had us believe that nothing was wrong at the camp and we find it difficult to believe that no other officers or members of staff would not have had even the slightest knowledge of what was going on.”

The four young recruits had been found shot dead at Deepcut barracks in separate incidents between 1995 and 2002. The Army concluded the deaths were all suicides, but the parents have always hotly disputed that.

During the police investigation, evidence of a culture of bullying and sexual harassment was revealed at the barracks, but until now there have been no prosecutions.

Skinner joined the Army in August 1974 and was made staff sergeant in 1989, a title he held when he went to Aldershot in the summer of 1992. He was then promoted to warrant officer in 1994.

Following the Northern Ireland incident, he was court martialled for a second time in February 1998 for indecently assaulting two young soldiers. He was sentenced to six months in Army prison before being dismissed.

An MoD spokesman said: “He was retained in the Army after the first court martial because the verdict did not sentence him to dismissal.”

He added: “Clearly, we recognise there is something wrong with that (sending Skinner to the Deepcut barracks as a training officer), and that is why we have now changed the procedures so that no one who had been court martialled for similar offences would be posted to training establishments.”

Skinner was given conditional bail until he is sentenced next month, however, Judge Charles Tilling warned him that a custodial sentence was “pretty much inevitable”.

The abuse at Deepcut only came to light when one of the victims watched a television programme on male rape and went to the police in November 2002 — six years after the assault had happened when he was just 18 years old.

He told police that Skinner, who was then in charge of the gym at the barracks, had forced him to have sex with him during the Christmas of 1996 when he was refused home leave as punishment for another matter.

Ms Howes told the court: “This young man speaks of the predicament he was in, but said because of the superior rank and the apparent authority that the defendant had over him, he felt in a position whereby he could do absolutely nothing about it.”

Police searched Skinner’s car and found photos of two soldiers he had abused hidden under the seat, which eventually led them to find the other three soldiers who had suffered abuse at his hands.

One soldier posted to Arnhem in 1992 when he was 17 was forced to strip naked to be whipped by Skinner.

Ms Howes said: “The victim and another soldier were told to meet him in a storeroom. They had been up to some sort of mischief and thought they were going to be punished for it.”

But when Skinner, of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, greeted them in the storeroom he brandished a riding crop before ordering the pair to strip.

Ms Howes said: “The soldier said: ‘I was worried, but at no stage considered leaving because the consequences of disobeying an order were far greater.’ ”

He asked him to stop but was told to “stop being a poof”.

Skinner persuaded another soldier, who was posted to Deepcut in 1997 when he was 17, to take part in sado-masochistic torture. He brought the recruit to the gym when it was closed in the evening and opened his locker to reveal canes and riding crops.

He then stripped naked and pulled out a work bench before lying on it and making the recruit whip him until he “drew blood”.